Best Tours in Ketchikan Alaska, by What You Want From a Port Day

Ketchikan is a cruise-port town strung along the Tongass Narrows, and every tour here is sold for a port day. That narrows the choice quickly: you have a fixed number of hours, a berth you did not pick and weather you cannot predict. This guide sorts the best tours in Ketchikan Alaska by the goal you arrive with, so you can skip straight to yours.

What makes a Ketchikan tour worth the port day?

Three tests settle most choices before price comes into it.

Where it starts. Downtown ships tie up at Berths 1 to 4 on Front Street, and most tours meet a short walk away at or near The Rock, the bronze statue on Berth 2. Ships at Ward Cove dock about seven miles north. A free shuttle runs to Berth 4 in about 20 minutes, so a tour that collects you at Ward Cove gives you that time back.

What it reaches that you cannot. Downtown is walkable: Creek Street, the salmon ladder, the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center and the Totem Heritage Center are all on foot. Herring Cove, Saxman and Totem Bight need a vehicle. The water and Misty Fjords need a boat or a floatplane. A tour earns its fare by taking you where your feet cannot.

What the fare covers. The trolley pays Herring Cove and Totem Heritage Center admission. The All in One pays Saxman. Fishing charters exclude the licence. Read the inclusions before you compare prices.

The best tour for a first visit

The photo safari is the pick: 4.9 from 1,064 reviews, $134 a person, three hours and nine guests at most. It works through eight stops in and around town. You spend 35 minutes on Creek Street, cross the Harris Street Bridge and visit the Totem Heritage Center. Then come the wooden docks of Thomas Basin and 40 minutes at Potlatch Totem Park, and it ends above the Narrows with the floatplanes coming and going.

The guide gives camera tips at each stop, and the small group means you are not queueing for the view. It leaves from Berth 2.

Runner-up: the Tongass Trolley at $85. It rides a replica 1800s cable-car trolley between six stops, from Herring Cove to the Totem Heritage Center, and both admissions are in the fare. Choose it if you want to sit between stops.

Which tour is best for bears?

The Neets Bay trip, at $414 and 4.8 from 148 reviews. A narrated coach takes you to Clover Pass, an enclosed boat runs you along the Tongass coast, and you spend 90 minutes on a guided forest walk at the Neets Bay Bear Observatory beside a salmon stream. The permits are in the fare. It takes 4 hours 45 minutes, so it needs a long port day, and it is not recommended for children under five.

Runner-up: the bear flight to Prince of Wales Island at $575, 4.9 from 27 reviews. A 40-minute floatplane flight each way takes you to Polk Inlet and a Forest Service bear-viewing platform. It takes travellers from 13, needs two per booking, and is non-refundable once booked.

On a budget: the small van at $80 spends 25 minutes at Herring Cove. Its guides put bears there at their most common from mid-July to late September, while the salmon spawn. No tour promises a bear. The long trips simply go where bears feed. All of them are on Ketchikan wildlife tours.

Which tour is best for whales?

The whale quest from Berth 2, at $178 and 4.8 from 1,038 reviews. You get about two hours on the water, out through the Tongass Narrows toward Metlakatla, with indoor and outdoor seats, snacks, soft drinks, binoculars and blankets. It takes children from three and accepts strollers.

Runner-up: the open Zodiac at $209, rated 5.0 from 224 reviews. Twelve people at most sit low to the water in full rain gear for 2 hours 20 minutes, with a naturalist and no fixed route. Choose it for the view; choose the cabin boat for comfort.

No boat guarantees a whale. The whole field, cabin to Zodiac, is on Ketchikan whale watching tours.

Is a Misty Fjords flight worth it?

If you have one splurge in Ketchikan, yes. Misty Fjords National Monument is 2,142,243 acres of wilderness east of town, with cliffs rising thousands of feet out of the water, and a floatplane covers it in about two hours.

The flight without a landing costs $349, is rated 4.4 from 294 reviews and refunds in full up to 24 hours ahead. The flight with a 20-minute water landing costs $470, is rated 4.9 from 54 reviews and is non-refundable. Each comes with a window seat and an all-aboard guarantee.

The catch is weather: a floatplane needs weather it can fly in, and flights have been called off in midsummer. If you cannot move the day, book the refundable one. The two are compared side by side on Misty Fjords tours.

Best for families with young children

For under-fives, the trolley: no age limit stated, strollers welcome, six short stops and both admissions paid. For children from three, the whale quest and the lodge trip with a seafood boil both take strollers, and the Rainforest Sanctuary walk takes them from three as well.

The crab boat takes children from five, with no exceptions, under Coast Guard rules. Orca Cove kayaking starts at five and the Clover Pass kayaks at six. Every age limit is set out in Ketchikan with kids, and the ziplines, kayaks and UTV are compared on Ketchikan adventure tours.

Best accessible tour

The crab boat at Berth 3: $249, 4.9 from 879 reviews, three hours in the sheltered Inside Passage while the crew hauls a 700-pound king crab pot. Its surfaces are marked wheelchair accessible, and you tell the crew at booking if you need assistance.

Three more carry the wheelchair flag. The Rainforest Sanctuary tour at $110 gives you two hours on foot in the forest with a naturalist. The four-hour salmon charter at $489 leaves from Berth 3. And the distillery tour at $149 is for over-21s, in a former fire station downtown. The All in One takes collapsible wheelchairs.

Best short tour, under three hours

The small van runs two and a quarter hours for $80, with the Totem Heritage Center's entry paid. The Over the Top loop runs two hours for $100, nine guests at most, and finishes at Creek Street. The Totem Bight walk runs two hours for $95, collects you at the ship and takes you inside a clan house.

A two-hour tour leaves most of a port day free for walking downtown on your own.

Best private tour

The private tour for up to 14: $680 for the whole party, three hours, your choice of stops, with fees, coffee and snacks included. With 14 aboard it costs under $49 each. For a party of up to nine, the four-hour private tour costs $1,000 for the group.

For two or four people, the maths favours a small shared group. The per-head sums are on Ketchikan private tours.

Best for anglers

The four-hour salmon charter from Berth 3, at $489 a person and 5.0 from 81 reviews. Six anglers at most, tackle and bait supplied, whales and eagles on the way, and a boat marked wheelchair accessible. For halibut, the private halibut boat at $499 is the equivalent, sold to your party only.

Every charter excludes the licence. A nonresident one-day licence costs $15 from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and a king salmon stamp another $15. Each charter also sets a minimum of two or three per booking. The full list is on Ketchikan fishing tours.

Which tours collect you at Ward Cove?

The kayak and e-bike trips carry you from Ward Cove and the downtown docks. The ropes and zipline park sits at The Mill at Ward Cove and includes port pickup. The private beach walk meets you outside your berth. The UTV meets you inside The Mill.

The lodge trip and the Neets Bay trip meet Ward Cove ships at the Ward Cove Welcome Center. For those two, riding the shuttle downtown means missing the tour. Most other tours meet downtown, so you take the shuttle first. The crab boat asks you to allow 45 minutes for the shuttle and the walk to Berth 3. Every meeting point is on the cruise port page, and the tours built around a ship's hours are on Ketchikan shore tours.

Which tours refund, and which never do?

Most tours here refund in full if you cancel at least 24 hours ahead. Two never do: the Misty Fjords flight with the water landing, and the bear flight to Prince of Wales Island. Both are non-refundable and accept no changes once booked.

If your port day could still move, a refundable tour is the safer booking. That matters most for flights, which also depend on the weather.

Best Ketchikan tours at a glance

Check availability from $134

Frequently asked questions

Tours for totems, fjords and bears

Off the Beaten Path Ketchikan Photo Safari - 3 hr.

Eight stops in three hours, from Creek Street to Potlatch Totem Park, with nine guests at most and camera tips at each one.

From $134 per person

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Misty Fjords Floatplane Flightseeing Tour

A floatplane from the Narrows over Misty Fjords and back in about two hours, with a window seat and an all-aboard guarantee.

From $349 per person

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Alaskan Bear Encounter by Land & Sea

Coach and enclosed boat to the Neets Bay Bear Observatory, then 90 minutes on a guided forest walk by a salmon stream, permits included.

From $414 per person

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